Blurred Lines
Over the years, trucks have morphed into many shapes and sizes, sometimes straddling the gap between commercial haulers and passenger cars or masquerading behind the badges of a brand not typically known for building truck-ish vehicles. Here are just a few that we find memorable for not only being unique but in some cases landmarks.
1931 MODEL A DE LUXE PICKUP
Price new: $600
Adjusted for inflation: $5,000
Average price today: N/A
Before the flathead V-8’s release, Ford was scrambling for ways to stem market-share losses. This led to some interesting, and now rare, one-year-only designs. Among them, the Model A De Luxe pickup with its cab-integrated bed sides (and more).
A prototype for the De Luxe pickup was unveiled, March 31, 1931, at a General Electric Refrigerator dealers’ convention at the Statler Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri. It was painted white and bristled with luxury-themed trim and accessories uncommon on trucks, such as a bright radiator shell and cowl band, as well as bright headlamp buckets, windshield frame, and outside rearview mirror. (This jaunty one-off truck also had some features that didn’t see production, such as twin sidemounted spares with stainless bands, a slanted windshield, and opera lamps on the B-pillars.)
Unfortunately, the production version of this stylized hauler didn’t catch fire with truck buyers. Ford sold just 99 by the fall of 1931, and pulled the plug after fewer than 300 were produced. The De Luxe line also included a De Luxe Delivery and a De Luxe Panel Truck. The Delivery was a Model A panel with
